Blogger

Reality Check: Blogs Haven’t Lost Their Mojo

By Mark Evans in Blog Services, Blogs, Social Media 4 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

One of the downsides of the hype about Twitter (aka the glamor girl) is how it makes blogs look downright dowdy. It’s easy for everyone to get all hot and bothered about 140-character (or less) messages because anyone can do it fairly well. Blogs, however, require time, a nugget of an idea, some work and, hopefully, solid writing.

In other words, Twitter is easy; blogs are difficult. Twitter is dessert; blogs are dinner. Twitter is paint-by-numbers, blogs are a canvas, some paint and an easel.

Nevertheless, millions of blogs continue to be created every day because they’re a low-barrier platform for anyone to ruminate, pontificate, speculate, opine and babble about anything and everything. Unlike Twitter, there are no arbitrary restrictions on the length of a post. You can go long, you can go short (a la master blogger Seth Godin), you can post a photograph, or comment on someone else’s blog post.

As Peter Kim outlined in a recent blog post, there are plenty of reasons why blogs appear to be losing their mojo. But I believe Kim’s thesis ignores some basic truths – the blogosphere continues to expand, and blogging continues to be the social platform to demonstrate insight, and the ability to create a community around it.

This is the reason that I encourage most of my clients to seriously consider writing a blog to show customers and potential customers who they are and what they think. To me, blogs are the perfect business card, white paper and marketing brochure in one tidy package. It also helps that Google loves blogs so blogs are a great SEO tool.

Sure, blogs aren’t easy because you’ve got to work them on a regular basis. (Note: “work them” means staying committed, which could mean one post/week or several posts/week). But in the long run, the rewards from blogging outweigh anything you’ll get from Twitter.

For more counter-thoughts on Kim’s blog thesis, check out the Future Buzz. As well, the chart below that shows how WordPress.com and Blogger.com have grown over the past year (27.7% and 28.2% growth respectively in unique U.S. visitors).

A Long Weekend of Deep Thoughts

By Mark Evans in Blogs, Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , , , ,

As my consulting business has become busier, it has been challenging at times to give this blog as much time and attention even though I believe blogs can be a very effective digital business card to show people what you think and know.

That said, I had some time over the long weekend to write four pretty good posts – two on blogging and two on social media:

1. WordPress Takes it On the Chin, which looked at WordPress dropped the ball from a public relations and message standpoint after Robert Scoble complained that his blog had been hacked. WordPress’ response was that he should have upgraded to the latest version.

2. Blogger: The Rodney Dangerfield of Blogging, looking at how Blogger recently celebrated its 10th anniversary but probably doesn’t get the credit and attention it deserves.

3. Why Does the NFL Hate Social Media, which looks at some of the rules made by the National Football League, including a ban on fans using Twitter to do play-by-play inside a stadium.

4. Community Managers: The Workhorses of Social Media, which talks about while being a community manager appears as a hot and glamorous position, it’s a lot of work and long hours.


Blogger: The Rodney Dangerfield of Blogging

By Mark Evans in Blogs 11 Comments Tags: , , , ,

A post by Louis Gray about the Blogger recently celebrating its 10th anniversary caught my attention for several reasons. One, it’s hard to believe anything on the mainstream anything on the mainstream Web is a decade old until you remember it has been 14 years since Netscape’s IPO, which symbolically marked the official transformation of the Internet into the Web.

While Blogger ranks among the world’s leading blogging platforms, it really doesn’t get the respect it probably deserves. Meanwhile, WordPress basks in the spotlight, although a recent security hack, which I experienced a couple of week ago, is probably not the kind of attention it wants.

Blogger struggles to get its props because, frankly, it is buried deep within Google, which acquired Blogger in 2003 (Twitter’s Ev Williams was one of Blogger’s co-founders). While Google users Blogger for its publicly-facing blogs, Blogger hasn’t really received a lot of love and attention from Google.

Sure, there has been a tweaks here and there, but Blogger is still pretty much the same platform it was six years ago.

Blogger also suffers from not being “cool”. Blogger is regarded as a blogging platform for beginners, who want something simple and easy. And in that respect, it’s a terrific product.

But when people get the hang of it, there’s a perception that anyone serious about blogging needs to migrate to WordPress – sort of like trading in your tricycle for a bicycle.

No doubt, WordPress has done a fantastic job positioning itself as the blogging platform. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress’ founding developer, is a tireless evangelist who travels the world talking to disciples. And the WordPress platform is enthusiastically supported by thousands of third-party developers who happily create plug-ins that expand and enhance the platform.

But when you look at the numbers, Blogger is doing pretty well. Below is a chart comparing unique visitors (U.S.) for Blogger to WordPress.com. Blogger is leading, although WordPress’ numbers don’t include the millions of people who have self-hosted WordPress blogs.

Still, it is interesting to see how the number of unique visitors to Blogger has grow 25% over the past year at a time when blogging seems have lost some of its luster.

Do you use Blogger? If so, why haven’t you climbed aboard the WordPress bandwagon?


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